Many types of power driven tools are known and used in the woodworking arts. Most power driven woodworking tools have both industrial and home or hobbyist level variations such that much of the woodworking which can be done quickly, repetitively and accurately on an industrial scale can also be accomplished accurately and conveniently with various home shop tools such as power saws, electric drills, drill presses, lathes, planars, sanders and the like.
Many such tools have been available as individual units for home use for some time. Additionally, over the past several decades there has arisen in the industry several versions of multi-purpose woodworking machines particularly designed and adapted for use in a home, in a hobby situation or in smaller professional applications. These multi-purpose woodworking machines are generally adaptable to perform at least five basic functions: sanding, sawing, turning, boring and drilling. Additionally, with various accessories which can be added to one or more of the five basic functions, the multi-purpose woodworking machine can perform a much larger number of woodworking tasks.
By way of background and not as limitation, two of the most common devices are sold under the trademarks SHOPSMITH and WOODMASTER MULTI-TOOL, although other manufacturers produce very similar machines under other tradenames. Because of the growth in popularity of such machines, the accessories for one particular brand machine are generally interchangeable with those of any other particular brand of machine and the various trade named multi-purpose woodworking machines tend to closely resemble one another. Consequently, an accessory which will be useful with one particular brand of multi-purpose woodworking machine will very likely be identically useful with most or all of the other brands of multi-purpose woodworking machines currently on the market.
One particular type of woodworking tool which has wide application especially for skilled craftsmen and yet which has not been available as an accessory for home multi-purpose woodworking machines is the carving spindle. Generally speaking, a carving spindle is a professional woodworking tool of straightforward design which can produce an infinite variety of detailed woodworking results. A professional carving spindle usually includes an electric motor which drives a belt, which in turn rotates a shaft at very high rates of rotation. The motor and shaft are mounted such that they would be approximately waist-high to a person using the carving spindle. The rotating shaft is mounted horizontally and has a woodworking end which projects outwardly away from the motor and belt such that pieces of wood to be worked by the spindle can be moved freely in almost any conceivable direction around the far end of the shaft without interfering with the motor and drive belt and vice versa.
The woodworking end of the shaft usually carries a small cutting blade which performs the actual carving when the shaft is rotating. Thus, with the cutting tool positioned relatively independently from the rest of the machine, items to be carved can be moved in a variety of directions within an imaginary sphere which almost completely surrounds the woodworking end of the shaft. Because of the freedom of movement of a piece of wood which the design of a carving spindle provides, a piece of wood to be worked can be moved around and contacted with the cutting tool in a variety of directions to produce an infinite variety of carving possibilities.
As previously mentioned herein, presently no adapters exist which can be used on the described multi-purpose woodworking machines which allow those machines to be used as carving spindles in home, hobby or small professional applications.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an adapter for a multi-purpose woodworking machine which will convert the multi-purpose woodworking machine into a carving spindle for making individual and detailed carvings in wooden objects.